My 23 month old son wakes at 5.30 to 6am every day

[Beautifulbabyboy]

Which is fine, it is just his sleep pattern. He goes asleep at 7pm every night. But I keep thinking of a previous AIBU thread where parents who let their toddlers watch 2-3 hours of tele a day were flamed, in particular one poster said parents who do this "obviously their heart isn't in it"

So AIBU to think these same parents don't have an early riser...

Because my heart is very much into parenting, but from 5.45 to hopefully 7.15 I can manage to lie in bed whilst DS watches the iPad... Or am I supposed to be bouncing around downstairs coming up with fun filled activities at dawn?

(For the record he also watches the bedtime hour on cbeebies - wind down time.. - hence the 2-3 hours)

I go to bed at 11. I can't go much earlier. I have housework, cooking, eating dinner, laundry and then work to do. Plus I occasionally try to have something of a life and chill out for half an hour or so

I used to have one of those.

He is now 15 - and on a weekend I rarely see him before noon.
I am the early riser - and I have no qualms about cleaning/vacuuming outside his door at 8am.

So - don't fret you parents of early risers - in 12 years or so you will get your lie-ins. just don't get any evening time alone

I often go to bed at 9....still knackered!

Yoni when dd's a teenager I'm going to run into her room at 5am naked, singing about fish fingers

I've stopped giving a frig about what other people and their children do and what they think I should be doing! 6am is usual get up time here and it sucks, the tv goes on, we cuddle on the sofa and share coffee, play games on iPad and at 8am the door to the garden is opened. You just have to do whatever you can to get yourself through the early morning.

Damn right my heart's not into parenting at 5am.

I wouldn't do any involved parenting before about 8, bloody hell don't want to raise their expectations.

I also dispute that this passes in a flash. I've been in this phase for nearly a decade with 3 kids. An emtire decade of my life. That's a very long phase and its definitely not over before you can blink!

Ha! When DS is a teenager and (hopefully) sleeping late i plan on jumping up and down on his bed and poking him in the eye/lifting eyelids up, just like he has done for the last 6 months

4.30 this morning. I will knock out SIL next time she announces that her 2 month old sleeps through til 8. I keep myself sane in the (evil) hope that she will experience the true horror of a crappy sleeper and finally stop acting like we've done something wrong

Do you have blackout shades? I definitely attribute my son's 7am wakings to these. Wherever we sleep without them, he wakes when the sun rises.

We have in dd's room but the birds are so noisy in the morning and the farmers bird scarer starts going off at 5

Should add that we also have a white noise machine blaring all night long. And I use a lavender spray on his bed at night. Anything to get him sleeping until 7am or later, as I malfunction on wakings any earlier than that!

You all have my sympathies.

Haha a few of these posts made me laugh. I can remember when the only thing that got me through was planning all the things I would do to get my own back when they were teenagers. I had forgotten. I am off upstairs now to jump on my hungover DSS bed shouting "JUICE!!" and hit him over the head with a sippy cup!! Where can I lay me hands on one of those.....

Ds is 6 and still gets up at 6am as does his little sister. They watch TV I couldn't care less.

Of course let him watch tv it's fine! I don't know why some people are so snobby about TV. It's not like you are going to let him watch it all day! As soon as my early riser son hit 13 he started sleeping in and holidays and weekends he'll sleep until lunchtime after having gone to bed at 10pm!

Ds has quite often watched a DVD before school, as in, a whole film, before school. His friends mums talk of having to drag their kids out of bed. I am not bitter, honest.

I am back. DS is now down for his lunch time sleep. So i have 45 minutes to myself. Am loving all these posts. :-)) LJL you made me laugh.

Ladymilford - this is what intrigues me, if we are "lazy f**kers" what am i supposed to be doing at 5.45??? Bake cakes / make bread / build lego towers / go to the park?

Seriously, given the nature of the other thread which is what set me off this morning, what are you supposed to be doing at 5.45am that makes you a worthy honourable parent in the eyes of some mums netters? I really want to know.

Also, having read some of the posts am now thanking my lucky stars that apple invented the iPad...can you imagine having to wait until the TV started for the day, and not having a remote to change the channel.... aghghgahgahgahag.

Ds2 was a 5am riser (and occasionally 4.45 - oh the pain) for several years - he and DS1 watched LOADS of tv - including the "it's too early for cbeebies so we'll play this song and clips on loop in case you aren't insane already" DS1 also learnt to read v early and now at age 9 reads in bed from when he wakes up. Doesn't seem to have damaged their intellect!! Do whatever you need to in order to survive.....

Get up. Do laundry. Let them watch tv. Go for a run if h there.

I had a good sleeper first. My second is the early riser, but has now taught the other two his tricks. Those of you who have good sleepers, don't be too smug, your luck may change next time! As for black out blinds, have them, they make no difference. Ds just doesn't need as much sleep as other children his age. DH is the same. Going back to my lazy life of doing nothing because its the weekend, I work full time and I cleaned the whole house last night so I could enjoy a day of doing nothing today.

My early riser wasn't interested in the Telly so wee used to get up really and then both flake out in the afternoons but it would've been a whole different story if he'd settled down to Postman Pat

But we are getting up, doing laundry and letting them watch tv LadyM

That's what the thread is about

But are you going for a run?!

DS was an early riser, and wanting entertaining - no interest in tv

Honestly this reminds me why I'm not sure about having a second child... Ds is now 3.3 and started sleeping till about 8am when he was 2.6 and I'm just about getting my face back now, but the wrinkles are there for good! You 've all my sympathy. Do whatever you can to get through with sanity intact.

Ha ha ha............a run

our DS (3.11) is usually up between 5.30 and 6.30. Gro-clock is used but to no avail - he likes it, just ignores it, regardless of whatever threat / bribe is used in conjunction with it. I have zero problem with using the TV but I do try to keep it to a max of 2-3 hrs throughout the day so what we do first is downstairs for cereal (for him) and the first of about 4 cups of tea that I chain drink. Then we go upstairs and while my second cup is brewing, I make a train track that he will then happily play with while I drink it. I try not to put the TV on until about 7.30 if I can (this is weekends by the way - workdays we're out by 7.20 so the early rising is useful) However 2 yo DD will sleep til gone 7 if not woken so if he is being loud I might stick it on just so that he doesn't wake her. seriously, train track is what its all about - so long as there are bridges and tunnels he's happy - some nights I even make it before I go to bed